What I Read: October 2017 Book Reviews

Well, October was definitely a better month of books than September. There were still a lot of so/so books that didn’t really spark my undying love, but I did have a few clear winners. As always, I’ll try to keep these reviews brief and you can go back and read my full reviews if you’re interested!

Lucy and Owen meet by chance in their apartment elevator during the middle of a NYC blackout. They spend one night talking on their roof and then both of their life circumstances change on the next day, moving them apart. They keep in touch by postcards. The theme of the book revolves around how important the right person can be to you, even if you don’t have a solid relational foundation to begin with. I enjoyed the book, but it didn’t resonate that deeply with me. I’d prefer to see my main characters actually together, conversing, interacting. Very little space of this book is dedicated to them actually being in the same place together. Cute concept, but also nothing that special.

I love the idea of nonfiction books. I’m addicted to finding new ones I want to read. And I usually buy physical copies of nonfiction books, otherwise they’ll get lost in my kindle. It’s pretty rare, however, that I actually start AND finish a nonfiction book in my collection. The fiction world is a pretty hard full for me. This book, though? It’s awesome. Jen has such a strong voice, which I’ve gotten much more familiar with since also listening to her podcast. It’s made me love this book even more. Each chapter is a short essay on a variety of topics about the mess of life and the moxie required to get through it. So many chapters were completely poignant to my own life, and I know they’d be so perfect for other people as well. No matter what stage of life you’re in, if you’re a woman – I think you’d love this book. It’s hilarious, it’ll bring you to tears, and it’ll make you realize that you are not alone.

I think it’s safe to say that Colleen Hoover is my all time favorite author. She’s never written anything that I didn’t fall in love with. Her characters have so much depth and emotional rawness that is hard to ignore. While this book is a little less romance-y than all of her others, I still adored it. The main character, Merit, was not exactly likeable. But I could still relate so strongly to some of the things she was going through. The story is about her and her crazy family and her sister’s boyfriend who she has fallen for. It’s funny, it’s sweet, it’s a little bit heartbreaking. I loved it all. Read this book, and all of her others!!

This is a book that will get under your skin. With the appearance of a happily married life, Grace is actually behind held captive by her sickeningly disturbed husband Jack through blackmail and threats. As the book progresses you learn how Jack is able to keep her quiet and why she stops making attempts to flee. You’ll wonder how anyone could continue to hope for a way out when every single chance she’s gotten resulted in such horrible outcomes. It’s truly a fascinating psychological thriller. The ending is quite clever and definitely worth sticking around for.

I feel like I keep talking about this, but I made the mistake of reading this book series at the same time as watching the first season of the show and had a hard time separating the two in my mind. But thinking solely about the book! It’s about an unknown actress who is instantly thrown into stardom with two of Hollywood’s hottest actors. She develops feelings for Rainer who helps her through the insanity. And then she meets Jordan and sparks fly. But she feels like she owes her devotion to Rainer for being her comfort and friend from the beginning. I found myself pretty irritated with how Paige couldn’t seem to make up her mind and understand which guy she actually wanted. I couldn’t understand why she would pick Rainer again and again when she SO CLEARLY had much more delightful chemistry with Jordan. But their love triangle is complicated.

I just realized I didn’t write a full review on this. Whoops! Well, I think I summarized it pretty well above. 🙂

The sequel is much the same as the first. Love triangle madness. Paige feels like she needs to keep her fans happy, which means she stays with Rainer. Even though she so clearly wants Jordan. I was annoyed with how self important she felt she was. That she couldn’t have what she wanted because it would disappoint too many fans. I wish she had gone with her heart from the start. But overall, I enjoyed the books. I just HIGHLY recommend either watching the show or reading the books – not both. In the books, Paige’s best friend Jake is a very minor character. Jordan is who she really wants to be with. In the tv show, Jordan is off in his own mess of relationship drama and Jake is THE guy. You will LOVE tv Jake. And you might love tv Paige more than book Paige. So maybe just watch the show. 🙂

I’ve read a lot of raving reviews for this book since it came out a month ago. I was hoping I’d love it as much as everyone else, but it fell a little flat for me. I think the storyline revolved way too much about the LDS church and how strongly they are against homosexuality. Which is probably true and a very important topic. I just wasn’t super interested in reading a whole book about it. But I loved the main character Tanner and how supportive and wonderful his family was of his own sexuality. The story was interesting, it just didn’t really grip me the way I had hoped.

This is a YA sci-fi/dystopian type novel about how most people in the world connect through a virtual reality network. I really liked the main character, Emika and how she learned to trust people and let them in, after a lifetime of fending for herself. But the overall arc of video game type stuff, just really isn’t my thing. It was very well written and I liked it, but I also had a hard time actually wanting to keep reading it.

I loved this book! It’s obviously a very serious topic – hunting down children that are missing. Most of the book is told from the perspective of Naomi, the child finder, and Madison, one of the girls who was taken. It’s quite the page turner. I forgot to write this in my original review, but it’s worth mentioning. This book is so beautifully written. Denfeld has a lyrical way of writing prose that I haven’t come across in quite awhile. Multiple times in the book I stopped to re-read a sentence and just revel in how acutely she phrased something. As a bit of a writer, I really appreciated it. Overall, I highly recommend this one.